The Pete Hoekstra-Nancy Pelosi rhetorical smackdown continued today as the debate over torture in interrogations shifted to whether Democrats were complicit in the practice.

Wednesday, Hoekstra, of Holland, ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, went on Fox News and charged that Pelosi, Democratic speaker of the House, knew about and supported waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation methods.

"The American people are going to demand answers to these questions, to what I call the inconvenient truth, Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats knew about these programs," Hoekstra told Fox's Greta Van Susteren. "They supported these programs. They did the right thing to keep America safe. If they've now changed their mind, they should say so. But they need to be held accountable."

Watch Hoekstra interview with Van Susteren

Pelosi held a press conference this morning and acknowledged that she had learned as early as 2003 that the CIA had subjected suspects to waterboarding.

The New York Times reported that Pelosi said for the first time that a staff member alerted her in February 2003 that top lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee had been briefed on the use of tough interrogation methods on terror suspects.

But she said the fact that she did not speak out at the time due to secrecy rules did not make her complicit in any abuse of detainees. She accused the CIA and Bush administration of lying to Congress about what was actually transpiring with the detainees.

"I am saying that the C.I.A. was misleading the Congress and at the same the administration was misleading the Congress on weapons of mass destruction," Pelosi said.

Soon after, Hoekstra was back on Fox News refuting the speaker's statements.

Calling it "Pelosi 5.0," Hoekstra said this was Pelosi's "fifth explanation about what she knew and when she knew it."

Watch Hoekstra's reaction to Pelosi press conference

Also today, a Hoekstra op/ed in the Washington Times argues the Obama administration is taking national security shortcuts that will ultimately harm us.

"We are watching a president trying to govern from his heart and not his head on national security," Hoekstra writes.

Hoekstra also criticizes President Obama's leadership.

"The president should take a lesson from former President George W. Bush in participative management and effective leadership."